LONDON: Sally Munday is the new ceo of UK Sport, the nation’s high-performance sports agency after holding a similar role for the past decade with England and GB Hockey.

Munday has overseen a golden era for the sport of hockey, with highlights including the Team GB women securing their first ever Olympic title at the Rio 2016 Games, the men’s team finishing in fourth place at London 2012, their best Olympic Games finish in a quarter of a century, the l hosting of the Women’s Hockey World Cup in London in 2018 and an increase in participation since London 2012.

A statement from UK Sport said: “With 29 years of working in the sports sector in a variety of roles, Sally brings a wealth of relevant experience to UK Sport. She joins at a fantastic time to lead UK Sport and the high-performance system into an Olympic and Paralympic Games year, as well as to implement an exciting new strategy for elite sport in the UK beyond Tokyo, as outlined earlier this year.”

Dame Katherine Grainger, UK Sport,’s chair said: “Sally Munday is a wonderful successor to Liz Nicholl as ceo  as we embark on our ambitious new strategy for high performance sport in the UK.

“Sally has led a sport that’s not only excelled on and off the field of play at elite and grassroots level, but also delivered an impact both domestically and internationally. Her expertise and strong leadership will be invaluable as well as her passion and vision.

“The Board and our UK Sport team are all looking forward to working with Sally to ensure we continue to inspire the nation through Olympic and Paralympic success.”

Munday said: “The past decade has been such a successful period for Olympic and Paralympic sport in this country and I am absolutely delighted to be given the opportunity to lead UK Sport and follow in the footsteps of Liz Nicholl.

“I know from personal experience that the UK Sport team have played such a key role in supporting the national governing bodies and their athletes in what has been an unprecedented period of success both in terms of medals and bringing major sporting events to this country.

“I am extremely excited to join UK Sport at this particular time, not only in the lead in to Tokyo 2020 but also the opportunity to implement the new UK Sport strategy leading to Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024.

“I love the ambition of the new strategy; both in continuing to support our athletes to light up the stage to make our nation proud, but also realising the social and community impact that is possible through our Olympic and Paralympic role models and the work that they and our national governing bodies can do.”

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